David Dir (born June 23, 1959) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

coach, broadcaster, and former player. He played professionally in the

USISL The United States Interregional Soccer League (USISL) was a semi-professional men's outdoor soccer league that played six seasons from 1989 to 1994. It was the first outdoor league to be operated by the organization known today as the United ...

and has served as a

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

in the APSL,

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

, and

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

, and as an assistant with the United States under-20 national team. Dir was one of the original ten MLS head coaches, coaching the

Dallas Burn Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

from

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

until

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

. At the time of his departure in 2000, Dir had amassed a regular-season record of 81–75–4, which made him the winningest head coach in MLS history until

Thomas Rongen Thomas Eddy Rongen (born 31 October 1956) is a Dutch-American football coach who has spent the majority of his playing and coaching career in the United States. In December 2016, he was named Chief Scout of the United States men's national soccer ...

overtook him in 2001.

Playing career

Dir played youth soccer with the Chicago Kickers. He attended

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. Once West ...

, where he majored in broadcasting. In 1980, the

Chicago Sting The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from ...

of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

drafted Dir with their first selection in the 1980 NASL College Draft. He suffered an injury in his first season and never played in a league game for the team. He later played for the

Colorado Comets The Colorado Comets were an American soccer club based in Denver, Colorado, founded in 1985 which later competed in the SISL and USISL. History Founded by Ed Eid in 1985, the team began as an amateur club coached by Kelvin Norman. That year, t ...

in the

Coaching career

Early career

In 1989, Dir began his coaching career as an assistant with the

Colorado Foxes The Colorado Foxes were a professional men's soccer club originally based in Commerce City, Colorado, that played in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) and USL A-League. Founded in 1990, the club moved to San Diego, California in ...

of the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. ...

. In 1990,

Regis University Regis University ( ) is a Private university, private List of Jesuit educational institutions, Jesuit university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1877 by the Jesuits, Society of Jesus, the university offers more than 120 degrees th ...

hired Dir as head coach of the men's soccer team, and his teams won the

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

in his first two seasons with a record of 10-5-2 in 1990 and 9-5-4 in 1991. He was voted the 1990 RMAC Coach of the Year. In 1992, Dir left Regis to become head coach of the Colorado Foxes. In his two and a half seasons with the team, he won the APSL championship twice, as well as regular season championships each year and the 1992

Professional Cup The Professional Cup was an international soccer tournament that took place in 1992 and involved eight, professional clubs from three different leagues in North America; the American Professional Soccer League, the Canadian Soccer League, and the ...

involving

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

sides. In May 1994, he resigned as head coach when his wife, who was a flight attendant, was transferred to a new location.

Dallas Burn

Dir was approached by

, which was preparing for its first season, to become the head of player personnel in charge of all scouting and creation of the original MLS player pool. He was the first employee hired by MLS. Dir worked with

Sunil Gulati Sunil Gulati ( ; born July 30, 1959) is an American sports administrator who presided over the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) from 2006 to 2018. On April 19, 2013, he was elected to a four-year term on the FIFA Council. In March 2014, h ...

as a director of player personnel for the new league for two years. In 1994, Dir left the league position and became the first head coach of the

, a position he held from 1996, the club's inaugural year, until 2000. In 2000, the club fired Dir. He was the longest serving of the original ten MLS head coaches and won the 1997 U.S. Open Cup. Dir remains in the top ten for all-time MLS wins as a head coach with eighty-four.

Later career

Dir served as an assistant coach with the U-20 men's national team from 2002 to 2011. He was a coach with the team through four cycles of the U-20 program with various head coaches. In 2002 Dir became a partner and served as president of the Associated Soccer Group, a national soccer education company which operates and oversees the operations of clubs in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Dir served as chief scout for the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

from 2011 to 2012."Dave Dir joins Rapids coaching staff"
Colorado Rapids, August 9, 2012. He then was an assistant coach with the Colorado Rapids from 2012 to 2014.

Broadcasting career

Dir became a soccer broadcaster with

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

. He hosted ''World Cup Tonight'' in 2002 and was a co-host on ''MLS Primetime''. He also provided color commentary for national team broadcasts as well as the

MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...

on ABC. He has also worked on MLS broadcasts for multiple clubs in the league.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dir, David Living people American soccer coaches American men's soccer players American Professional Soccer League coaches Colorado Comets players FC Dallas head coaches Major League Soccer head coaches USISL players Western Illinois Leathernecks men's soccer players Colorado Rapids non-playing staff Men's association football goalkeepers 1959 births 20th-century American sportsmen